Commuters face another week of tube strikes

Oliver Smith is a senior reporter at The Memo, an online publication curious about the future of technology. He was formerly a reporter at City A.M.

Follow Oliver

Oliver Smith

STRIKES on the London Underground next week, starting on Monday evening and lasting until Thursday, are still set to go ahead as talks between Transport for London (TfL) and the RMT transport union continue today.

“Should next week’s strike go ahead there is likely to be disruption but we will do everything we can to keep London moving and with the continuing support of our staff we hope to run more services,” said London Underground’s operations chief Phil Hufton.

TfL reported that this week’s strikes saw the London Underground continue to carry 57 per cent of its usual passenger numbers with eight in 10 stations remaining open.

“It was thanks to the hard work and dedication of transport staff and thousands of volunteers that we were able operate over 50 per cent of Tube services across the 48 hour action earlier this week,” added Hufton.

The union says its three-day strike will go ahead unless Underground officials agree to revisit plans to close all Tube ticket offices, which will mean 750 net job losses but £50m in annual savings.